Music-sheet for mechanical musical instruments.



PATENTED AUG. 11,1903.

C. L. DAVIS.

0R MECHANICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 1'7. 1903.

MUSIC SHEET F 10 MODEL.

UNITED STATES Patented August 11, 1903.

PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES L. DAVIS, OF MERIDEN, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO VVILCOX & WHITE COMPANY, OF MERIDEN, CONNECTICUT, A CORPORATION OF CONNECTICUT.

MUSIC-SHEET FOR MECHANICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

"JEECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 7 3 6,228, dated August 11, 1903.

Original application filed NovemberlZ, 1902, Serial No. 130,960. Divided and this application filed March 17, 1903. Serial No. 148,177- (No model.)

To all whom, it many concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES L. DAVIS, a citizen of the United'States, residing at Meriden, in the county of New Haven and State of 5 Connecticut, have invented a new and useful Improved Music-Sheet for Mechanical Musical Instruments, of which the following, together with the accompanying drawings, is a specification sufficiently full, clear, and exact .O to enable persons skilled in the art to which this invention appertains to make and use the same.

My present invention relates to the construction of perforated music sheets, rolls, or

5 strips for pneumatically controlled musicplaying instruments, the objects being to provide a music-sheet adapted for use in connection with a pneumatic instrument having a tracker wherein a portion orportions of the orifices are formed on a more contracted spacing than its normal scale.

Another object is to provide in the musicsheets for pneumatic piano-playing instruments a combined scale or note space system 2 5 that will give a large number of notes on a comparatively narrow strip or music-sheet to increase the number of notes represented without increasing the width of the musicsheet to an excessive extent.

0 Another object is to provide a music sheet or strip having a range of music-note perforations formed on a determined uniformlyspaced scale and supplemented at either or both sides thereof with a marginal series of 3 5 music-note perforations formed on a more contracted scale, as hereinafter explained.

My invention consists in providing a music sheet or strip in the main body or principal part of which the perforations are formed on 40 a regular uniformly-spaced scale and of normal width of slot or circular-hole perforations and comprising a marginal or side portion having the perforations therein formed on a narrower or more condensed scale with slots or holes uniformly spaced, but of smaller lateral dimension than those in the main body of the sheet, as more fully hereinafter described, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in whicl Figure 1 represents a portion of a musicsheet embodying my invention. The lines thereon indicate the scales or rows of noteopenings. Fig. 2 represents the face of a tracker upon which my music-sheet is adapt ed to be employed.

In the illustrations the delineation is shortened to bring the figures within the limits of the drawing-sheet by omitting twenty-four notes at the central portion'of each figure; but it will be understood that such omitted 00 portion is in regular uniform continuation of the normal scale shown adjacent to the break and may account for a width of note perforat-ions.

My improved music-sheet, as illustrated in Fig. 1, is constructed of a paper sheet or strip M of any required length. The central main portion R has the perforations 13 therein formed and arranged on a normal uniformly-spaced scale of, say, six to the inch 7 or other suitable determined number and comprising, say, sixty-five notes, corresponding with the scale of the main series B of the tracker-ducts 3, and said music-sheet is provided with a supplementary or marginal portion S at either or both edges, in which the perforations 15 for a series of, say, ten notes, more or less, are formed on a narroweror more contracted scale or a scale of, say, ten notes to the inch or other suitable deter- 8o mined number and with openings that are smaller laterally than the perforations 13 of the main series, thus making the full scale range eighty-five notes. The lines of smaller perforations are 011 a scale to correspond with 8 5 that of the supplementary series S of open ings 5 in the tracker face A. By this con struction I produce a music-sheet comprising a larger number of notes without requiring a sheet or strip of excessive width and without 0 reducing the scale of the music-note perforations or ducts in that part of the range within which the greater portions of most music is written. In some instances the perforations for single short notes of the supplementary serice or narrow scale portions S may be formed as oblong holes, as at 31, having a length equal to the diameter of the single short-note hole 13* of the larger scale, but with a lateral width of opening less than the diameter of the larger scale-holes. The openings for long notes may be formed as slots, as at 20, or a series of successive adjacent holes similar to the short-note holes, as at 25. The crossbridges, being of less dimension than the tracker-orifices, will not cut off the air while passing such orifices. Consequently the primary pneumatic remains flushed until such long-note perforations have wholly passed the orifice.

A tracker of the class upon which my improved sheet-music is designed to be used has its face A provided with orifices and 5, arranged as shown in Fig. 2, the portion R corresponding to the main series of sixty-five note-perforations and the portions S corresponding to the marginal series of ten noteperforations. Such tracker forms the subjectmatter of a separate application for Letters Patent.

In this specification, for convenience of description, I have considered as the range of the music-sheet the perforations for sixtyfive notes and eighty-five notes; but I do not confine my invention to these exact numbers of notes, since the number of notes in either the main or the marginal series can be more or less without change in the nature of the invention.

I am aware that music-sheets have been heretofore made with perforations of different Widths arranged in gradually decreasing or increasing scale to compensate for the shrinking or expansion of the paper due to climatic influence or changes of humidity, also that sheets have been provided with openings of different character from the noteperforations for the engagement of feed-cogs or devices for advancing the sheet.

\Vhat I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A perforated music sheet, strip or band for mechanical music-playing instruments, having a main series of perforations formed on a uniformly-spaced scale of a determined number to the inch, across the centralportion of the sheet, and having at the side a supplementary series of perforations formed on a laterallycondensed scale or with greater number to the inch than those in the main series, the perforations of the main series, and of the supplemental series, being of clifferent lengths for the purpose set forth.

2. A perforated music sheet, strip, or band for mechanical music-playing instruments, having the main series of note-perforations across its central portion formed 011 a uniformly-spaced scale with holes of a determined size, and provided at the sides or marginal portions thereof with supplementary series of music-playing perforations that are formed on. a uniformly-spaced scale, of lesswidth spacings and' with holes of less lateral dimension than the main series, the perforations being of different lengths, substantially as described.-

3. A perforated music sheet or roll for the purpose specified, its perforations comprising a plurality of different scales, each uniformly spaced within its limit, the single short-note perforations for the wider-scaled portion being formed as circular holes of determined size, and the single short-note perforations on the narrower-scaled portions being formed as longitudinally oblong holes, of a length which corresponds to the diameter of said circular holes, and of a width less than the diameter of such circular holes.

WVitness my hand this 11th day of March, 1903.

CHARLES Ii. DAVIS. Witnesses:

F. 0. WHITE, 0. L. PIERCE. 

